BOSTON — Taylor Hall scored his second goal of the game 2:53 into overtime and the Islanders lost to the Bruins in their finale on Monday night, locking them into the fourth seed in the East Division.
Mathew Barzal and Oliver Wahlstrom scored for the Islanders, who will face East champion Pittsburgh in the first round. Semyon Varlamov made 25 saves before he was replaced to start the third period by Ilya Sorokin, who stopped 10 shots.
Brad Marchand also scored for Boston, which will face second-place Washington in the first round of the playoffs. Tuukka Rask had 16 saves.
Hall cut in front and beat Sorokin with a backhander for the game-winner.
Varlamov wasn’t on the bench for after the second intermission, and Cory Schneider came out in uniform and took a seat about seven minutes into the third period.
“He had a little strain. He could have finished. We said: ’Let’s not take any chances,’” Islanders coach Barry Trotz said. “If it was a playoff game, I’m pretty sure he would have finished.”
Going for the win in regulation, the Islanders pulled Sorokin for an extra skater with about a minute to play. Marchand had a long shot that went just wide.
“I thought we played the right way,” Isles defenseman Ryan Pulock said. “We were trying to get a goal in regulation.”
Boston had grabbed a 2-1 edge when Marchand, positioned at the top of the crease, redirected David Krejci’s pass into the net for his team-leading 29th goal at 6:15 of the second, but Barzal slipped a wrister over Rask’s right shoulder from the high slot just over two minutes later.
Varlamov kept it tied with two solid saves in the closing minute of the second; dropping to block Sean Kuraly’s close bid and flashing his left pad on Patrice Bergeron’s shot from the slot.
Trailing 1-0, the Islanders tied it on Wahlstrom’s power-play goal that beat Rask past his stick with New York skating on a 4-on-3 advantage.